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Man caught prying at chapel's door

A man who was arrested Thursday morning for trying to break into a Salvation Army chapel admitted he had broken into the chapel three times before, Athens-Clarke police said.

Salvation Army Maj. George Price said he heard a noise at the back of the chapel at 784 N. Chase St. at about 11:20 a.m. and saw a man he knew trying to pry open a chapel door with a pair of knives, according to police.

Price confronted the man, 20-year-old Cordero Geovanny Pumadera, who explained he was trying to get into the chapel to steal musical instruments he could pawn in order to buy crack, police said.

Pumadera, of 985 Danielsville Road, told officers he had stolen keys to the chapel and had used them three previous times to steal instruments, police said.